[dkirschling]

An acquaintance of mine came over to pick up some of my rat babies. She was closely inspecting one and said she saw something on his fur. It took her forever to locate one for me to see. She found one piece of fur with a tiny white blob on it. It didn't look like anything to me, but she said that lice lay nits that stick to the fur. I really didn't see anything-no bugs in his fur or on the fur of any other animals in my house. She found ONE HAIR with something on it. My adult rats have had ivermectin treatments, with the exception of the babies mommies. I have been looking them all over like CRAZY all day! Should I be concerned, or was she just being a bit of a jerk? Frankly, I was insulted.

 

[Stephanie]

honestly Lice are really common and you should not take offense to it. there is nothing you did to make a rat get lice it just happens LoL. I never knew that you could see lice on rats with the naked eye. I have a microscope that I use to check my rats on a weekly basis. I would treat them for the lice anyway just in case.

 

[Forensic]

I wouldn't be offended. Although she may have been trying to pick a fight, lice can come from anywhere. Lice and flea, I think, can be seen by the naked eye, and mites cannot.

If the rats aren't scratching and don't appear to have scabs or anything, or visible bugs, I'd not worry about it too much, just keep an eye on them.

 

[MagicalLobster]

I had a very old (I say old because he was about a few weeks from passing away) rat of two years who had lice. He was almost in no way affected by them. Then I made the mistake of bringing in a new ratlet from the pet store into the mix. The baby died because he basically was too young to handle the lice, while the adult rat did just fine. This is my only experience with lice, but I hope it gave at least some insight.